Once upon a time there was a mirror. . . .So begins this dark, unusual retelling of the story of Snow White by the writer reviewers have called "the Angela Carter of the fantasy field"--a whole novel based on a beloved story, turning it into a dark and sensual drama full of myth and magic.Arpazia is the aging queen who paces the halls of a warlord's palace. Cold as winter, she has only one passion--for the mysterious hunter who courts the outlawed old gods of the woodland. Coira is the princess raised in the shadow of her mother's hatred. Avoided by both her parents and half forgotten by her father's court, she grows into womanhood alone . . . until the mirror speaks, and blood is spilled, and the forest claims her.The tragic myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, stolen by the king of the underworld, is woven together with the tale of Snow White to create a powerful story of mothers and daughters and the blood that binds them together, for good or ill. Black queen. White maid. Royal huntsman. Seven little folk who live in the forest. Come inside, sit by the fire, and listen to this fairy tale as you've never heard it told before. Once upon a time there was a mirror, and a girl as white as snow. . . .
After a hiatus of some years, the Fairy Tale series of novels by various authors, edited by Terri Windling, has made a welcome return. The first post-hiatus book is fantasist extraordinaire Tanith Lee's White as Snow, a retelling of Snow White darkly intertwined with the myth of Demeter and Persephone. If you're familiar with both Lee, winner of the August Derleth Award and several World Fantasy Awards, and Windling, also winner of several World Fantasy Awards, and the premier fantasy editor of modern times, then you would expect White as Snow to be a terrific novel. And you would be right.
In an alternate-history medieval Europe, the noble maiden Arpazia, raised in an isolated castle, finds herself the captive of the conquering general-king Draco. The only remnant of her former life is an exotic glass mirror possessed of witchy powers. She feels no connection to Coira, daughter of her forced marriage to the brutal Draco. She becomes the lover of a woodsman, Klytemno, who embodies the divine Hunter King in pagan rituals. Then Klytemno requires her to send her black-haired, snow-pale daughter Coira into the woods as a sacrifice.... --Cynthia Ward
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Weak characters and horrid grammer make this worthless:
The beginning of this book had me in and I was prepared to love the whole thing only to come across let down after let down. The characters have no depth too them, save for one or two, and they end up dead or screwed over anyways. The female characters are all too passive, and granted the faux time period of it all may be coming into play, but even for women of that age these characters are dull, depressing, and uninteresting. The writing itself is choppy at best. There are sentences in the book that... more info
Dark and obscure; delves into the feminine mystique:
Reading Tanith Lee is a little different than reading other modern-day authors. Her stories are replete with psychological undertones, more Jungian than Freudian, although they also rely heavily on the sensuous side. There is a dark and obscure tone to her stories that reveals the feminine mystique that is in all of us. I have really enjoyed Lee's other books like The Secret Books of Venus, and I noticed that White as Snow has a similar theme, where misfits come together and fall in love, despite the... more info
This is Definitely NOT Walt Disney's Snow White!:
"Once Upon a Time, in winter, there was a mirror." And this mirror was a gift to 14-year-old Arpazia, the King's daughter. But when the brutal Draco conquered all the land, Arpazia and the mirror were both taken over. But instead of killing her like most of the King's people, he took her with him. When she became pregnant after he brutally raped her, Draco decides that he must marry her and make Arpazia Queen of the new land. When a daughter was born, Arpazia wanted nothing to do with the child. She could... more info
Who doesn't love Snow White?:
Tanith Lee is an inspiration to authors and fairy tale fans alike. She's pioneered the dark fairy tale genre. As an author, I found her own version of an archetypal fairy tale nightmarishily delicious. Lee rocks.
Amber LaShea Holmes
Snow White on Acid: Nine Fantastical Nightmares
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